OMEN TO THAT

I guested on Damian Edwardson's "Omen to That", as part of his "The Art of Self-Publishing" episodes.

Have a listen here.

THAT COMIC SMELL: Read Me Forever!

The new episode is online now.

From the website:

"On today’s episode we covers those pages/comics in which we constantly come back to. The ones we set aside even though we have a huge reading pile to get through. The ones that we jumps to when thinking about comics. The show offs. The utter loves. The ones that are FOREVER!
We also go into quite a large list this time of comics that we have got a hold of, bought or have been reading recently.
This and all the usual comics chat on…
That Comic Smell!

Get us on…
Soundcloud: tinyurl.com/y8vzeh3c
Spotify: tinyurl.com/y2qtu2cs
YouTube: tinyurl.com/yajnxcno
Apple Podcasts: tinyurl.com/hwbqxab
Podbean: tinyurl.com/yxvecykj
and most places you find podcasts.

Star Trek DC (Mike Barr, Tom Sutton, Ricardo Villagra)
This Was 2020 (Peter Conrad)
Batman: Strange Apparitions (Steve Englehart, Marshal Rogers, Len Wein, Walt Simonson)
Bubbles Fanzine #9 (Brian Baynes)
Please Don't Step on my Jnco Jeans (Noah Van Sciver)
King-Cat Classix (John Porcellino)
Tarzan (Burne Hogarth)
King Kirby: Jack Kirby y el mundo del cómic (José Joaquín Rodríguez)
Bone (Jeff Smith)
Watchmen (Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons)
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (Al Williamson, Archie Goodwin)
The Incredible Hulk (Stan Lee, Jack Kirby)
Spider-man/Venom (Todd McFarlane)
Transformers: Stargazing (Simon Furman, Jeff Anderson, Stephen Baskerville)
Hellblazer: Original Sins (Jamie Delano, John Ridgway)
Thor: Blood Oath (Scott Kolins, Michael Avon Oeming)
X-MAN (Steve Skroce, Terry Kavanagh)
Battle Angel Alita (Yukito Kishiro)
Fued (Mike Barron, Mark Nelson)
The Hulk vs Doc Samson: Marvel Annual (John Byrne
Dragonball Z vol.2 (Akira Toriyama)
One Piece Vol.1 (Eiichiro Oda)
Excalibur (Chris Claremont, Alan Davis)
V for Vendetta (Alan Moore, David Lloyd)
Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
Blacksad (Juan Díaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido)
The Death of Superman (Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern & various)
Follow Me In (Katriona Chapman)
CYDO (John Tucker)"

RAIDERS OF A LOST ART #2

The latest from Barnstormer Comics is an Indiana Jones parody called, "Raiders of a Lost Art".

This second issue has work from Robin Barnard, a cover by Martin Hand, and a comic by me called, "Indiana Jones and the Age Old Question".

You can read the entire issue over at Images Degrading Forever here.

TAY BRIDGE DISASTER COMIC at BROKEN FRONTIER

Andy Oliver has written on The Tay Bridge Disaster comic over at Broken Frontier.

Have a read here.

MONSTER / MONSTERS

In 1985, my family went to Canada for a family holiday. The first trip abroad we’d had. One of the highlights of the trip for me was access to comics I couldn’t usually get. American Marvel, DC, and other comics. I discovered Archie Comics on this trip.

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars had just begun to be published by Marvel UK, and I was eagerly reading that series. One of the comics I got in Canada was Secret Wars II #3 – a jump into the future which blew my mind. 

Another Secret Wars related comic I got was Incredible Hulk #312. The Secret Wars II tie-in element was a few pages tacked on at the end of what was actually a very powerful story. A retelling of Bruce Banner’s life with the conceit that the Hulk was part of his character from the moment he was born. 

The story by Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola showed that Bruce’s father was possibly irradiated over the years as he worked with dangerous materials. Bruce had suffered mental and physical abuse throughout his childhood, and so when the gamma bomb from The Incredible Hulk #1 went off, it released the Hulk creature which had always been inside him.

It was heady stuff for The Hulk comic, I read it a thousand times and it became a real favourite.

Many years later in 2003, around the time of the Ang Lee Hulk movie, I read an interview with Barry Windsor-Smith in Comic Book Artist #1, where he said the idea of that story had been his. He’d pitched it to Jim Shooter, but for various reasons depending on who you speak to, they’d gone ahead with a Mantlo/Mignola version. Windsor-Smith let the readers know he’d continued working on the comic in the eighteen years since, and completed pages from it were shown in the magazine.

It was shocking to see that one of my favourite Hulk comics had this background, but exciting to think a more expanded, purer version of the story was on the way. 

I used to write letters in to Comics International magazine, and in #163, I sent in the following to them:

Fast forward another eighteen years. As a regular guest of Tony Esmond’s Never Iron Anything podcast, I am called upon to choose different comics to discuss in depth with him. I decided Hulk #312 would be a good choice, as I had seen that Fantagraphics were going to publish the apparently completed “Monsters”. This would be a timely conversation! Have listen here.

Today, my copy of Monsters arrived and I am keen to read it. In fact, I am a bit trepidatious to read it. What if it’s crap? We’ll see…

INDIANA JONES and the AGE OLD QUESTION

Over the past few years, I have done guest comics for Star Jaws, published by Robin Barnard and Barnstormer Comics. Star Jaws is a love letter to / parody of Star Wars and the UK Star Wars comics of the 1970s and 1980s. As I’m a big Star Wars fan, I have fun coming up with stories to run by Robin and see if he’ll use them.

Last month, as I drifted off to sleep, I had an idea for an Indiana Jones comic and wondered if Robin would be interested. It’s not Star Wars, but it does have the Lucasfilm/Harrison Ford connection, so maybe..?

Woke up the next day, keen to ask Robin. But before I messaged him, I saw this online:

What a coincidence! This was perfect! I read his mind, or vice versa.

Now I couldn’t wait to tell him I had an Indy comic idea, and ask if he wanted it for this. He did, and agreed for it to appear in the second issue. 

I’m working away on it, with pencils done. I’ll be inking and colouring it before the release date of 14th May. Look out for it online then!

THE TAY BRIDGE DISASTER at DAREDEVILS & WARRIORS

Alister Black has written on The Tay Bridge Disaster comic over at Daredevils & Warriors.

Have a read here.